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Peterson wins aerials in China, pads overall lead

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February 5, 2005

Peterson wins aerials in China, pads overall lead{mosimage}SHENYANG, China (Feb. 5) – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson (Boise, ID) fattened his World Cup aerials lead Saturday, winning his third event of the season as the World Cup returned to China for the second time. The competition was held on the Baiqingzai course, near the city of Shenyang, in northeastern China.

Peterson clicked on two quad-twisting triples – a double-full, full full and then a full double-full, full – for 247.63 points with defending World Cup champion Steve Omischl of Canada second at 242.52. Ryan St. Onge (Steamboat Springs, CO) was eighth and Joe Pack (Park City, UT) 11th.

“Speedy’s first jump was amazing – by far the best I’ve seen him do yet in both training and competition,” said Aerials Head Coach Matt Christensen. “His second jump – full, double-full, full – was tight and when he landed it I knew it was over. None of the others had game.”

After eight of 13 aerials events, Peterson has 534 points to 363 for St. Onge and 350 for Omischl.

Xinxin Guo of China won the women’s event with 192.99 points. Nina Li, also of China, was second with a score of 187.61, and Australia’s Lydia Ierodiaconou was third. Top U.S. result came from Kate Reed (Montrose, CO) in eighth place with Emily Cook (Belmont, MA) 15th.

“I was happy with Kate’s overall performance, considering the speeds were tough,” Christensen said. “All the girls are competing above their limits…and Kate’s dissatisfied with ‘just’ a top-10 result. Next week [Feb. 12 in Changchung, China], we plan to have Kate perform a full, double-full [triple twisting, double flip] if we have sufficient training.”